Page 109 - Arabian Studies (V)

The Yemeni Poet Al-Zubayri 99
He justly refutes Zubayri’s absurd assertion (para. 4d) that the
Imamate divided the Yemeni populace into two sections, and
points out how it united the country (wahhacl kalimat al-sha€b)
against the Mamluks and Ottomans. He agrees that the Lower
Yemen has suffered great injustice and been subjected to armed
force (para. 4d) but this is not the fault of the institution of the
Imamate, and the (Zaydl) northern districts in Rasulid times
suffered from their raids.
Zubayrl deceives himself (paras 7e and 7f) and the truth in consi­
dering that ‘opening the gate of independent judgement’ was a trick
to introduce the Fifth School. He counsels Zubayrl to consider
matters from a scholarly level, to stick to facts, and not to deceive
himself. ‘Individuals do not endure for ever, nor do families, but
the principle endures and circulates with generations (ajyaf).'2'

Translation of al-ZubayrVs attack on the Imamate
The Yemeni Union
The Committee for Education and Publication22
The Imamate
and its menace to Yemeni Unity
Muhammad Mahmud al-Zubayri23
[3]
1. In the cause of popular sovereignty and national unity
(a) Today the Yemen is passing through a critical phase of its political
history, for political tendencies are contending there with each-other,
swaying its future hither and thither in violent fashion.
(b) The strongest of the political tendencies in respect of reactipn and
aggression against the populace24 is the tendency of that front working to
buttress up the Imamate, adopting the Sayf al-Hasan25 as its leader,
spokesman and candidate for the Imamate in the future.
(c) The Yemeni Liberals who have raised the slogan of national unity and
popular sovereignty, herein declare their frank opinion on the issue of the
Imamate, so that the Arab populace in the Yemen may become aware of
the reality of the unexpected perils lurking in wait for its future behind an
administration headed by that doyen of reaction in the Yemen, Sayf al-
Islam al-Hasan.
(d) For this very reason the Committee for Education and Publication of
the Yemeni Union presents this comprehensive study on the disastrous26
Imamate through which the Yemen has suffered for about a thousand
years. The issuing of this treatise is by way of participation only in this
battle and to illumine the path, the path of the fighters throughout the
whole of the Yemen.

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